HERO Agent Rose RIP

Mrs Peel used the code name Agent Rose during the war

Mrs Peel, who helped 102 British and American pilots escape from her native France, with the concentration camp uniform she wore before being liberated

Second World War heroine Andree Peel, who has died aged 105, proudly shows the medals she won during her time as a French resistance fighter

It almost escaped my notice, but we lost another amazing hero this past week:

Andree Peel, French heroine who saved 102 Allied pilots
from the Nazis, dies aged 105

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 9:14 PM on 08th March 2010

An unsung Second World War heroine who saved more than 100 lives and survived a Nazi death squad has died aged 105.

Andree Peel, who was known as Agent Rose, helped 102 British and American pilots escape from her native France.

The resistance fighter was imprisoned in two concentration camps but was liberated and went on to settle in Long Ashton, Bristol, after the war.

She was the most highly decorated woman to survive the conflict and was awarded the Legion d'Honneur by her brother, General Maurice Virot.

Mrs Peel was awarded the War Cross with palm, the War Cross with purple star, the medal of the Resistance and the Liberation cross.

She also received the American Medal of Freedom from US President Dwight Eisenhower, as well as the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct, presented to her by King George VI....[...]

Under the code name Agent Rose, Mrs Peel passed vital information about the German Army after it invaded Brest, in her native Brittany, France.

She managed to save more than 100 Allied pilots in a three-year period working for the Resistance.

Mrs Peel's most harrowing experience came when she faced a Nazi death squad, but she was saved when they fled as Americans troops advanced on the Buchenwald concentration camp...[...]

Speaking last year she said: 'I was born with courage. I did not allow cruel people to find in me a person they could torture.

'I saved 102 pilots before being arrested, interrogated and tortured. I suffer still from that. I still have the pain.

'We were defending freedom. It's an extremely precious thing. It is only when you do not have it that you begin to appreciate how important it is.

'At that time we were all putting our lives in danger but we did it because we were fighting for freedom. (more at Daily Mail)

"We were defending freedom."

And the BBC has more details (plus a video clip of her(which I can't embed):

[...] After the war she received a personal letter from Winston Churchill congratulating her on her work.

She also received the Croix de Guerre and the American Medal of Freedom.

She was being lined up to be shot by a firing squad at the Buchenwald concentration camp when the US Army arrived to liberate the prisoners.

'Phenomenal Courage'

A former hairdresser from Brittany, Mrs Peel began her involvement with the resistance modestly, by handing out underground newspapers.

Later she tracked troop movements and went on to head an under-section of the movement.

Her network allowed Allied pilots to escape German captivity, hiding them and - where possible - smuggling them away from France in submarines and on small boats.

She recounted her wartime experiences in her autobiography Miracles Do Happen, which was published in 1999...

There is more - plus the video clip - at the Beeb here. What a phenomenal woman, and thank goodness we have the records and her autobiography.

Thank you for your defence of freedom, Mrs Peel. Rest in Peace.